Groundhog Weather School by Joan Holub

A few years ago, when I was a K-5 librarian in our district, I remember clearly a first grader visiting the library on a cold day in winter.  She looked at me with a determined face and said, "I NEED a book. About Flowers. And Sun."  And she waited. I chucked as I knew how she felt. Winter was miserable and we needed there to be an end in sight!  We found a few Lois Ehlert books and she was on her way.

I felt the same way at the bookstore last weekend when I saw the book Groundhog Weather School: Fun Facts About Weather and Groundhogs on display. I am not a fan of holiday books or of Groundhog Day. But the book reminded me that there might be an end in sight to this miserable winter.  It reminded me that Groundhog Day is right around the corner and then spring follows at some point.  It ended up that I loved the book so I bought it to share with my kids on February 2.

The book is a fun one in that it is filled with information but it is in the context of a fun story.  The story is one of groundhogs who go to Groundhog Weather School and learn to predict spring on February 2. The story is fun as there are fun visuals throughout (an add for the groundhogs made me laugh). There is a graphic feel to the book and the talking bubbles will engage kids immediately.  But the thing I like most are the nonfiction features and the way that this author embedded information in the book.

A page of "GeHOGraphy gives information on Groundhogs in North America.  The page of "Famous Furry Hognosticators" gives us basic info on 8 famous groundhogs in the US and beyond.  Readers learn about weathermen and how groundhogs build burrows. And the final page gives us more history of the day.

I love this book because of the visuals. I never buy a book that we'll only enjoy for one week out of the year. But this will be one we can read all year.  It will be a fun book to share on Groundhog Day but we can also revisit the visuals any time of the year to see how this author shared important information in a visual way.